Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)

Poland has released price guidance for its first international dollar bond since its tumultuous January euro print.

The only spot of new bond activity in the CEEMEA market so far in this week was Poland’s first dollar deal of the year, but there was plenty of loans market activity in the region to keep bankers occupied.

Poland is considering a Panda bond issue, and is hoping to meet investors in China in the second quarter of this year for the deal, according to a source in Poland’s Ministry of Finance.

Russian mining firm Metalloinvest has closed a $400m pre-export finance facility (PXF), with two banks coordinating. But the bank list and pricing have not been disclosed, leaving uncertainty over the wider lending appetite for the deal and sector.

Russia is making preparations to sell an offshore renminbi bond, its debut in the currency and the government’s first international bond since 2013. But with sanctions still in place and renminbi liquidity limited in Russia, the sovereign is planning to ask China to relax one of its outbound investment schemes so that mainland investors can buy the deal.

Russian B&N Bank sold $150m of 2019 paper on Monday, only managing to hit the lower end of its targeted size range.

Russian B&N Bank has released price guidance for a $150m-$200m loan participation notes and is targeting Asian investors with the deal, according to a source at the issuer.

Holding Slovenske elektrarne (HSE), the largest power generation firm in Slovenia, has pulled its bond — a sign that European high yield is still cautious, despite increased bond sales in March.

Evgenia Tyurikova has been hired as Sberbank’s new head of private banking.

In this round-up, China's cross-border trade settlement fell to a near three-year low in February, CME reports record levels of trading in its offshore RMB futures, RMB spot trading fell but swap trading surged on the Moscow Exchange, Singapore renewed its currency swap line, and Deutsche Bank sets up a the first interbank host-to host platform by a foreign bank in China. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB's top stories this week.

As further news of banks being unofficially asked to stay out of arranging a Russian sovereign bond was leaked this week, gas giant Gazprom entered the Swiss franc market and drew one of the largest ever books for a note in the currency, demonstrating the pent up demand that exists for Russian paper.

Gazprom printed its Sfr500m bond on Wednesday from a Sfr2bn book, one of the largest ever for an international issuer in the Swiss franc market.